When to Remove Contacts from Your Email List

Administrator

Posted on 7.29.2015

Today, email remains one of the most consistent and reliable ways for marketers and brands to reach their consumers.

Yet, as marketers are constantly on the hunt to add new addresses to their contact lists, it’s important they understand when it is time to take an address off of their lists. There are a variety of reasons to remove an address from email lists, beyond the obvious bounces from invalid addresses and unsubscribes.

Below are three types of addresses that marketers should think about removing from their lists.

One such reason to remove address from an email list is because they are not responding. By sending emails to perennially non-responsive users, marketers are wasting valuable time and resources knowing full well that their efforts will be in vain. If marketers are too hesitant to remove these addresses completely, they should at least be moved to a reengagement campaign where messages are more tailored to bring non-responsive members back into the fold.

Another type of address to remove from your lists is one that was not an opt-in. While Black Hat techniques are looked down upon by most, if not all, industry professionals, addresses obtained by these means may reside in lists through no fault of the current marketer (e.g. leftover list from previous employee or through a company acquisition). Marketers looking to abide by best practices should look to delete these emails from their lists.

Furthermore, marketers should also think about removing alias addresses from their lists. Alias addresses, for those unfamiliar with the term, are those which are used to immediately forward all messages they receive to a different account. Alias addresses can be those such as support@company.com and sales@company.com.